When Ralph Peer’s father, owner of a furniture store in Independence, Missouri, started selling Victrolas in the early 20th century as a sideline, Peer became fascinated with the problem of providing sufficient content to satisfy the demand created by this […]
Some days my bones feel weary. It especially hurts when I get down on my knees, slowly bend over, and flip through dusty shelves of old, used books. Years ago it was record stores, but I can barely recall the last […]
My brother and I sat on the front stoop, with impressively out-of-tune plastic guitars in our hands. With sibling harmony decades removed from the Louvins, we proudly proclaimed, in front of god and everybody, things we couldn’t possibly have understood. […]
In my continuing effort to highlight DJs from all over the world, I present Rolf Hierath from Germany. He is a big Johnny Cash fan and does no less then three weekly radio shows. Bill Frater: Where and when did you […]
The song “No Depression in Heaven” was originally recorded by the Carter Family in 1936 during the Great Depression. Depending on where you look, it’s either attributed to A.P. Carter or James David Vaughan. Regardless, the song has been recorded […]
Jean Ritchie died a few days ago at the age of 92. For decades, her pure, clear voice brought the sounds and sentiments of Appalachian music to people from Carnegie Hall to A Prairie Home Companion. She played and sang […]
The cover art is woefully generic, the liner notes are less than useless, the album was recorded in 1991, copyrighted in 2004, and just released. And yet this is, apparently, the last Carter Family recording, meaning Helen and Anita with […]
With all due respect to the labels that have helped to keep the recorded legacy of the original Carter Family in print during the CD era, this new release on Germanys Bear Family label leaves them all in the dust. […]
Three volumes remain to be released in Rounder’s exemplary reissue series of the Carter Family’s complete Victor recordings, but installment six here represents, more profoundly than any other, the Beginning of the End. As noted in previous issues of No […]
By the middle of the Depression, record sales were, not surprisingly, plummeting. “Lonesome For You”, a quirky tune similar to Alfred G. Karnes’ “I Am Bound For The Promised Land” that A.P. and Sara Carter duet on here, sold only […]
